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Sketches of Summer II

One of my favorite campers this summer (and that title means little cause I enjoy so many of them) was Emilie. She’s incredibly bright and funny and often took the lead when it came to improv comedy activities, something I’ve always felt terrible at.

She was also, despite being a Coloradan, a vehement New York Yankees fan (likely cause of family). By the end of summer, we’d developed a routine of trash talk about baseball, though she adamantly refused to admit that the Red Sox were doing better than struggling New York. When she made her request, I figured it was the perfect time to get a little goading in.

“I want you to draw me a guy watching a game with popcorn and soda. And the guy better not be a Red Sox fan.”

“Okay,” I told her, already working things out in my mind.

A week or so earlier, I had drawn “two kittens playing with a ball of yarn” for Josee. The ball of yarn sat calmly front and center, tongue out, holding an Xbox controller, while the two kittens sat on either side in various states of effort with their controllers. It was an awesome drawing that really made me and the kids laugh, but it was before I had started copying them. I figured I could anthropomorphize the popcorn and soda in the same way, which would let me take a shot at our opposing fandoms.

When I finished the picture and handed it to her, I could see the excitement on her face. It quickly dropped to a scowl.

“Is the popcorn wearing a Red Sox hat?” she asked, her eyes narrowing. “Why is he happy!? WHY IS THE YANKEES FAN ANGRY! DAMMIT, BABA1!”

“Well, the Red Sox are in first place and the Yankees are struggling.”

“TWENTY-SEVEN CHAMPIONSHIPS!” she yelled, flinging the picture to the table.

“Yeah, but not this year,” I said through my shit-eating grin.

“What’s up with the soda?” she asked, risking a second glance.

“Oh, he’s supposed to be a Cubs fan, but I forgot the hat.”

“Why is he surprised?”

“Because he’s watching a playoff race.” She tilted her head and raised an eyebrow. “The Cubbies never get to see a playoff race.”

Requested by Gavrielle.
“I want a dog in the rain.”

1During my first week of camp, after eating a blue raspberry popsicle, Toby’s tongue was extremely blue. I called him a smurf. In response, he called me “Bob Smurf.” I said, “More like Ali Baba Smurf.” And so he and Katie, and soon the rest of camp, started calling me Baba Smurf.